HDPE Milk Bottle etc.

I Used 2 B A Milk Bottle - plastic shopping bags, cereal box liners, detergent & oil bottles, and toys are made from HDPE.
HDPE is High Density Polyethylene derived from - you guessed it - oil.
Milk bottles are the most valuable HDPE recyclate as its ‘natural’ colour can be made into any colour when it is recycled.

Recycling HDPE is simpler than that necessary for PET. Once the bottles etc, are baled by the recyclers and sold to manufacturers, they are ground into small flakes, washed and floated in baths to remove heavy contaminents which sink. Plastic manufacturing plants heat the flakes - adding pigments for colour - the flakes are run through a pelletizer which makes the HDPE into pellets or little beads of plastic.

These pellets are put through injection molding presses to make new products depending on the design of the press.

Recycled Products from HDPE
Plastic lumber, pipes, flower pots, garbage cans, recycling containers, furniture and back into bottles.

marmax-picnicbench-jnr-gree

www.marmaxproducts.co.uk

I Used 2 B A Plastic Shrink Wrap

LDPE  or Low Density Polyethylene is similar to HDPE but is less dense and more flexible (the chemistry: it doesn’t form crystals - unlike HDPE which has high density - meaning it’s ‘tough’).  Virgin LDPE is made into packaging such as dry cleaning bags, food wrap, bread bags, flexible container lids, squeezeable bottles - honey & mustard; also made into adhesives, sealants, injection moulding, wire & cable covers.

These plastics are recycled with special grinders for the thinner film and repelletized for recycling.

Recycled products:

Plastic garbage bags, plastic tubing, agricultural film, plastic lumber, compost bins, floor tile.

I Used 2 B Yoghurt Containers

PP Polypropylene

This plastic resists chemicals (such as acids in tomatoes), is strong and can take hot liquids so it is used for yoghurt & margarine containers; take out & deli foods; ketchup and syrup bottles; even medicine bottles and bottle caps.

Recycled into: battery cases, cables, brooms & brushes, garden (leaf) rakes, shipping pallets and trays.